Review: CashCrunch Careers

We're at that point in our homeschool journey that we have to start planning for Raine's longer term future. In a few years, before she gets to senior high, she'll need to decide on what track to take: Academic, which splits further into General, Humanities, STEM, and Accountancy and Business Management; Technical-Vocational-Livelihood, which includes specific tracks Agri-Fishery, Home Economics, Industrial Arts, and IT; Sports; or Arts and Design. At the moment, Raine wants to be a vet who writes books and draws, and also makes crafts while running a business (some years ago she wanted to run salons all over the world, but that may have changed). The Hubby, of course, prefers that she take a 'useful' track, "She needs to study something she can make a living out of. She might end up as a starving artist. Or writer." Hmph. I am a writer and I did not starve. Though I did have to eat all sorts of eggplant dishes for weeks on end because eggplants were cheap when I was starting out my freelance writing career. But I digress.

So. Enter CashCrunch Careers from CashCrunch Games. CashCrunch Games helps both kids and adults become financially literate through games and bite-sized lessons. You can even play one of the games, CashCrunch 101, for free online. CashCrunch Careers is their latest product. It's an online assessment tool that helps guide you to appropriate careers or industries suited to your work style, motivators, and attributes. According to the website, "The objective of CashCrunch Careers is to provide you with a place where you can explore and learn about careers and hopefully give you further insight and direction into your journey."

Getting the assessment is straightforward. After you sign up, you take a 15-minute survey, which is like the typical personality test where you have to choose between two statements such as "I prefer to work alone." and "I like it when people acknowledge my efforts." With this one, you have two traits that you choose from.

Sample questions from the quick survey

Then after you complete the survey, you immediately get a summary of your results. You get your Career Work Style, which is like a personality trait review, but in the context of work. Then you have the Motivators and De-Motivators, which describe your ideal work environment. You also get a summary of your Attributes, or your inherent personality traits. Finally you see a Career Match, which ranks different fields that you are suited for based on your test results.

Your results after the survey are available through your dashboard

The list of careers that match your attributes. This is my list.

Raine's list of possible careers

When you click on a potential career path, it opens a new window that lists the general job description, activities, and skills and attributes needed.

This particular entry is for Fitness Trainers and Aerobics Instructors. I didn't know that you still called them aerobics instructors

There is also a tab that shows the different colleges and universities that offer courses related to your chosen career (mostly in the United States, a few from around the world). Finally, you can also click on the Video tab to watch a short clip that describes that particular career. Do note that not all careers have a list of colleges, or have videos.

List of colleges that offer courses related to fitness and aerobics

Raine and I both took the test, and while I found it hard to decide which characteristic applied to me, Raine found it quite easy. You cannot retake the test once you're done. You can, however, access your test results indefinitely.

I'm not quite sure if the results accurately capture us. For example, both Raine and I got Fitness Trainers and Aerobics Instructors as our top industry. But in the HP family, Raine and I are the couch potatoes! Also, I would think that agility and other physical attributes would be listed as skill requirements, but strangely, they were not. I'm not too sure if the other recommended careers suit us either. However, it is interesting to know about the different possibilities.

Paul Vasey, the creator of CashCrunch, did say this though: "The career categories for most people will be the same, even though the reports should suggest huge differences. In each of the careers, the jobs can vary quite considerably. For example, in the publishing world you will need editors, writers and graphic designers. In the police force there are a number of different personalities required depending on their roles. Some will rise to the ranks in leadership, be detectives, others will follow a more scientific route into CSI and so on. The purpose is to show that within career categories, there are a number of different roles for different personalities. The ranking is based purely on your inherent traits. You could work in the same career field but just do different jobs. This report is merely unlocking possibilities that you may have not even considered, which allows you to research and possibly choose that career path. College courses and videos have been provided for further information."

While CashCrunch Careers is meant to be an investment that should save you time, money and grief in the long run, at this point I'm not ready to spend nearly $100 for the report. I see the wisdom in it, but it's beyond my budget for now.

Other homeschooling families also took the test from CashCrunch Careers. Click below to read about their experiences.